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Volibear/Development
|narrative= |artwork = Wild Blue Studios Rachel J. Corey Risu |visual = Drew Gamble David Helsby Liem Nguyen Neal Wojahn |lead = |voice = |conceptcredit = Michael 'IronStylus' Maurino }} Champion Sneak Peek - Volibear, the Thunder's Roar By Average Gatsby Champion Sneak Peek - Volibear, the Thunder's Roar Every once in a while, there comes a champion so controversial that even the executives can't agree on what to do with them. Some might claim that the combination of two awesome elements can only yield up an even greater awesome of truly epic proportions, while others might cling to the superstition that too much awesome isolated in one particular being can only lead inevitably to disaster. The two awesome elements that we're talking about in this case are, of course: bears and gigantic suits of armor. For many of you, , the Thunder's Roar is no doubt the best news you will get in the time of your natural lives. For others, we understand the anxiety that might accompany the thought of facing down a massive, armored bear. If you're one of those summoners afflicted by a phobia of bear armory, we've arranged to include the following comic to help you face down your fears. Ursine enthusiasts everywhere rejoice! Your bear in shining armor has nearly arrived! Full Relaunch Choose a Champion Update Voting Result: Volibear By Ryan 'Reav3' Mireles Choose a Champion Update Voting Results! Nathan “Riot Lutzburg” Lutz, Gameplay Designer: Volibear is one of my most played champions, so I’m thrilled to work on him! My goal is to preserve the spirit of current Volibear, allowing him to do cool bear things like chase down and maul his enemies. I’d also like to integrate his “thunder god” aesthetic into more of his kit while finding new ways to explore the bruiser role. Insert bear pun here. Justin “RiotEarp” Albers, Concept Artist: I’m very excited to get to help bring new life to League’s ferocious bear champ. I’ve been thinking about a Volibear VGU for a long time, and I know we’re going to do his current design justice while creating something new and exciting for him. We have a lot of unique ideas that I’m already doodlin’ and noodlin’ on, and I hope Volibear mains follow along and get as hyped as we are. Time to get to work and bring the thunder! The Freljord calls! Rayla “Jellbug” Heide, Narrative Writer: I can’t wait to dig my claws into Volibear’s story. I’m excited to show how he exemplifies this untameable, tempestuous force as the unforgiving leader of the formidable Ursine. In the Freljord, wild nature can be just as dangerous as magic, and Volibear embodies both elements to a frightening degree. Fiddlesticks and Volibear: Dev Update #1 By Ryan 'Reav3' MirelesFiddlesticks and Volibear: Dev Update #1 A few months ago, you all voted on which champion you’d most like to see updated in 2020. The poll was so close that we decided to update both Fiddlesticks and Volibear next year, and today we’re here to share the latest progress on their VGUs! We started early discovery on both champions around the same time. As of right now, we’ve found what we think is a strong, exciting direction for Fiddlesticks. He’s made it through ideation—which is where we lock down the direction of a champ’s gameplay, narrative, and art—and moved into early production, which is when we start moving towards getting the ideas into the game. Volibear is pretty close to early production as well, but we’re taking a bit more time to make sure we’re equally confident in the Freljoridian demigod’s direction. Now let’s talk about the lightning-fueled Freljordian demigod. As I mentioned, we haven’t settled on a design direction for Volibear just yet, but the team has been exploring some exciting hooks to set him apart from the rest of the champion roster. ;What Does It Mean to Be a Bear? Nathan “Riot Lutzburg” Lutz, Gameplay Designer: “Feeling unstoppable” was one of the first goal statements I wrote when outlining the Volibear VGU. After trying several iterations which attempted to capture that feeling, the team encouraged me to push the envelope and really go for it. As a result, one of the concepts we’re exploring right now is the idea that Volibear refuses to be stopped by immobilizing effects. Instead, he converts effects like roots and stuns into self-slows, which scale based on the strength of the crowd control that hit him. My current challenge is figuring out the specific rules and balancing levers we’ll need to ship such a unique mechanic, but so far our playtesters have referred to it as “surprisingly fair.” Outside of that, I’ve been focusing on how best to preserve and enhance Volibear’s unique focus on basic attacks. While subject to change, I’ve moved his chain lightning ultimate to a passive effect to make room for a more explosive and variable high moment on his R. Finally, I’ve been experimenting with ways to modernize some of his other hallmark mechanics, such as his health regeneration and lightning roar. Over the next month, my plan is to keep pushing on Volibear’s relentless ability to chase down enemies as a unique gameplay hook—stay tuned! ;Concepting the Bear Necessities Justin “RiotEarp” Albers, Concept Artist: We’ve officially kicked off development since that first batch of initial concepts, and I was ready to really get into it. Things got a little dark at first—the bottom spread of Volibears went the more “demon bear” route. For D, I was thinking it’d be interesting if Volibear developed some sort of coarse, hardened armor, potentially on his head (forming the shape of a skull) and on his torso. I wanted it to give him a primal, ancient look. He’s wearing strips of bandages and ripped clothing as a way of breaking away or “hulking” out of his Freljordian parameters. For E, I wanted to get pretty ferocious with Volibear, with the weapons sticking out of his back and lightning striking all around him—I wanted to simulate him raging out against humans/civilization trying to bring him down with the only means they know. He wears a slight headdress/Freljordian embellishment to bring back a bit of that cold culture, and he has the lightning scar tattoos on his back. F Voli is maybe the most monstrous, simulating nature’s chaotic fury and death. For the top spread, my aim was to explore a few different personalities for Volibear to try to find the right tone. In A, I was going for a more veteran, grizzled, powerful elder bear, with hundreds (thousands?) of years of experiences and warfare behind him. He’s got the storm mane, and after the innumerable lightning strikes, he’s developed a callous sort of armor on his skin. For B, I wanted to get super primal and feral without getting demonic, bringing back the weapons on his back and showing him in a roaring pose. I was thinking those blue shapes coming out of his head would be lightning strikes frozen into true ice to connect back to some iconic Freljordian characteristics. The fur on his back is burned Freljordian striped patterning where the lightning has seared across his back. For C, I wanted to go back to the idea of Volibear as a Freljordian deity, and bring back some of the armored “warbear” feel of current Volibear. I was referencing images of ancient Chinese deities with the floating scarves around their heads and shoulders, and thought it would be cool if instead of a scarf it was thundering storm clouds! I added in some braiding in the beard and hair to add a bit more humanity and emotion to the more bear-like qualities of this iteration. These are all directions we’re still exploring! I’ve been playtesting the kit when I can and have really enjoyed my experience so far—there’s been some super exciting kit ideas to go along with these visuals and the developing story thoughts. I think Volibear players will be excited to see where we are heading! ;Exploring the Complex Mind of a Bear Rayla “Jellbug” Heide, Narrative Writer: One of my current challenges is figuring out how to bridge Volibear’s personality as he appears in the game with Volibear as he appears in the stories on universe. His current voice has a calm resonance that gives him a certain honorable dignity. But he’s also a ferocious, ancient god of the Freljord and a literal bear who can overpower you in a fight with the wrath of a storm. In the lore, we’ve seen Volibear as the terrifying entity with many eyes, a monster whose back is studded with the swords of lesser men, people who have tried to take down the beast and failed. But I suspect Volibear is not the type of warrior to run away from his foe and get stabbed in the back—he faces his enemies head-on with fearless instinct. I’m also exploring Volibear’s relationship with nature and mankind. Does his power come from his human worshipers in the twisted Ursine, or from nature itself? Or perhaps he believes in the rewilding of mankind, that humans have become weaker and less true to themselves with the growth of civilization. I don’t expect that he wants to destroy all of mankind, but perhaps he thinks men need to pay penance for their mistakes. In some ways, Volibear has an opposite philosophy from Ornn, who crafts weapons for warfare but doesn’t care to meddle in human affairs and prefers to be left alone. Volibear does not seem to craft or create—instead he destroys human creations and their falsehoods and does get involved in their wars, and he certainly does not care to be ignored. Perhaps he resents the fact that humans have become less dependent on their demigods, to the extent that they have forgotten their roots. Perhaps he wants us all to return to the old ways of lost myth and unsung ritual. In any case, I seek to bridge these seemingly opposing aspects of his personality—his wisdom and wildness, his nobility and violence, his calmness and ferocity. We have seen how Ornn sees him, how tribes of the Freljord see him, but we have not yet seen Volibear’s tale as told from his own perspective. I’m excited to give a voice to the ancient demigod who will not be forgotten. Champion Roadmap: October 2019 By Ryan 'Reav3' MirelesChampion Roadmap: October 2019 ;A Storm is Brewing In the last dev blog, I mentioned that we were still exploring directions for Volibear’s gameplay design and hadn’t settled on anything yet. Today I’m happy to say we’ve found an exciting direction for Voli’s update, one that preserves Volibear’s current gameplay identity while also giving him some unique new tools. We moved away from the permanent unstoppability idea and have instead been testing a new direction, making Volibear feel more like a god of storms, bringing thunder down on his enemies and the structures they hide behind. One common thing we heard—especially from Volibear mains—was that the more grotesque-horror visual designs felt like they strayed too far from live Volibear, so we’ve refocused our explorations on versions that feel more true to current Voli. The horrific version of Volibear from recent lore was seen through Udyr’s perspective, where Volibear was called forth by the most extreme Ursine. For his VGU, we want to show Volibear as he is to himself, in his most prime, original, godlike form. Media Videos= ;Related Videos Volibear Champion Spotlight| There Will Be Mayhem 2016 All-Star Event - League of Legends| |-|Gallery= Volibear Teaser.jpg|Volibear Teaser Volibear Concept 01.jpg|Volibear Concept (by Riot Artist Michael 'IronStylus' Maurino) Volibear Model 01.jpg|Volibear Model (by Riot Artist Drew Gamble) Volibear Poro.jpg|Volibear Poro Promo Volibear Captain Model 01.jpg|Captain Volibear Model (by Riot Artists DragonFly Studio) The Heist Promo 01.jpg|The Heist Promo 1 The Heist Promo 02.jpg|The Heist Promo 2 The Heist Promo 03.jpg|The Heist Promo 3 (by Riot Contracted Artist Rachel J. Corey) Punches and Plants cover 02.png|Captain Volibear "Punches and Plants" Cover (by Riot Contracted Artist Risu) Volibear ElRayo Model 01.png|El Rayo Volibear Model (by Riot Artist Cody 'Sstrikerr' Bunt) Volibear Update Concept 01.jpg|Volibear Update Concept 1 (by Riot Artist Justin 'Earp' Albers) Volibear Update Concept 02.jpg|Volibear Update Concept 2 (by Riot Artist Justin 'Earp' Albers) Volibear Update Concept 03.jpg|Volibear Update Concept 3 (by Riot Artist Justin 'Earp' Albers) Volibear Update Concept 04.jpg|Volibear Update Concept 4 (by Riot Artist Justin 'Earp' Albers) Volibear Update Concept 05.jpg|Volibear Update Concept 5 (by Riot Artist Justin 'Earp' Albers) Volibear Update Concept 06.jpg|Volibear Update Concept 6 (by Riot Artist Justin 'Earp' Albers) Udyr Volibear Silence for the Damned.jpg|Volibear "Silence for the Damned" Illustration (by Riot Employed Artists Wild Blue Studios) Lissandra The Dream Thief.jpg|Volibear "The Dream Thief" Illustration (by Riot Contracted Artist Zoe Zhu) |-|Summoner Icons= Laman Master Volibear profileicon.png|Laman Master Volibear Spirit Bear profileicon.png|Spirit Bear Volibear Poro Icon.png|Volibear Poro El Rayo profileicon.png|El Rayo Category:Champion development Category:Volibear